Editorial: Corporate Tax in California
01 August 2007
The research for this chapter has identified 16 leaders in the field of corporate tax law from 12 firms within California. We identify experts with a wide range of specialisations. International tax specialists are included alongside domestic experts; direct taxation practitioners feature in a list which also includes indirect tax lawyers and specialists on transfer pricing and tax issues deriving from M&A and dispositions. All, however, are recognised for their outstanding ability in the legal aspects of corporate taxation.
Irell & Manella LLP is a highly respected Californian firm and fields more lawyers in this chapter than any other outfit. Milton Hyman is active in complex tax matters, handling tax controversies involving federal and state taxation and has acted as special tax counsel to debtors in possession, creditors’ committees, and major creditors in major corporate reorganisations under the Bankruptcy Act and the Bankruptcy Code. He also plays a pivotal role in corporate deals that have a high tax component and headed the team responsible for the Kenneth Leventhal & Company/Ernst & Young combination. Elliot Freier joins the “highly qualified” Hyman in the chapter. Freier specialises in federal and Californian taxation of corporations and is “very bright indeed”. Prior to joining the firm Joel Rabinovitz served as deputy international tax counsel at the US Department of Treasury and he brings this experience to bear in his private practice. Rabinovitz is well known for his work regarding international tax planning and counts foreign investors and major US multinationals among his clients.
Latham & Watkins LLP’s tax practice has had a number of high profile lateral hires over the past few years. The Los Angeles office is home to the “excellent” John Clair and “fantastic” Laurence Stein. Stein is global chair of the firm’s tax department and has obtained private letter rulings from the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service on a variety of corporate transactions. Clair is the managing partner of the LA office and counts investment banks, leveraged buyout funds, public companies, individual investors and foreign corporations among his clients.
International powerhouse Baker & McKenzie is the final firm to have two partners listed in this chapter. John Peterson was described to us as “top rank” and is chair of Baker & McKenzie’s global tax group. His practice places great emphasis on inter-company pricing, structuring of international operations and international tax planning generally, high technology tax issues and federal income tax controversies. Peterson is also a certified public accountant. Gary Sprague is “very well known” and is a frequent speaker on international tax planning topics. Sprague was also selected by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development as one of five business representatives to participate in its Technical Advisory Group concerning the characterisation of electronic commerce revenue for tax treaty purposes, and was elected chair of the business representatives on that body.
Eight individuals appear in this chapter as sole representatives from their respective firms. James Fuller, chair of Fenwick & West LLP’s tax group, is recognised as a “leader in the field” and is known for his high-profile federal tax cases. Fenwick & West has offices in Silicon Valley – where Fuller is based – and San Francisco, as well as in Boise, Idaho. Fuller received more nominations than any other practitioner in the research and was praised as “simply the best”.
Morrison & Foerster LLP has over 1,000 lawyers in 18 offices around the world and it fields a leading lawyer from its San Francisco office in this chapter. Thomas Steele chairs the firm’s West Coast state and local tax practice group and is “well regarded and well liked”. A large amount of Steele’s time is spent counselling clients on the tax consequences of new forms of communications technology.
Terence Cuff from Loeb & Loeb LLP is evidently well regarded in the legal community. Known as “the go-to guy for partnership tax”, Cuff ’s principal clients include real estate investment trusts, real estate investors, large energy companies, large corporations with transactional tax problems and financial institutions. Paul Sax from the San Francisco office of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP was also highly nominated. Sax’s practice focuses upon tax planning and the handling of IRS disputes and litigation for domestic and multinational corporations.
Julie Divola from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP is “really top-notch”, according to one source we spoke to. She is the leader of the firm’s San Francisco tax, benefits and political law practice and has worked extensively within a variety of industries, including telecommunications, financial services, technology and technical services, media, energy, alternative energy, life sciences, real estate and construction. Ivan Humphreys is based in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a firm that caters to international technology and growth enterprises (and their financiers). He has lectured at Golden Gate University’s Graduate Tax School and Stanford Law School and for the San Jose State Graduate Tax Program. Humphreys is well known for his tax-related work in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
Nancy Iredale from Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP is a “great practitioner” and “very well respected”. This was reflected by her appointment, by the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, to his advisory group. Iredale’s practice involves providing tax advice to international and domestic clients in commercial transactions as well as structuring advice and tax opinion letters for tax-free and taxable merger and acquisition transactions. Iredale is especially well known for obtaining summary adjudication for clients in tax controversies and is a “skilled litigator”. She also serves as the interim chair of the University of Southern California Gould School of Law 2007 tax institute.
Munger Tolles & Olson LLP can boast the inclusion of Stephen Rose. He is an adjunct law professor at the University of Southern California Law School, where he teaches corporate and partnership taxation and is a prolific writer and speaker. Rose’s practice is well respected and he concentrates on the structuring and taxation aspects of complex business transactions. Charles Moll from Winston & Strawn LLP is the final nominee. Moll leads the firm’s nationwide state and local tax practice and devotes a great deal of his time to the resolution of tax controversies. He has appeared before the State Board of Equalization and the Franchise Tax Board and has litigated in the United States Tax Court and the United States Supreme Court.